Some of Cain's characters are similar to those in Toni in that they are poor, working people living hard-scrabble existences. While Lopate and Jones mention the similarities of plots, with the love triangles and murders, neither mentions that Cain wrote about Okies and people like those in Toni who either travelled to find work, or like the diner owner in Postman and the uncle with the small vineyard in Toni have achieved modest dreams working for themselves rather than an exploitive boss. As in Cain's novels, most of the characters in Toni are looking for better lives for themselves, and are involved in questionable relationships based on emotional, if not financial, gain.

Like Toni, La Terra Trema was filmed on location, is about the working poor, used non-professionals as actors, and has a narrative about a worker seeking a way to work for himself instead of being an abused employee. Much has been written about how Toni influenced the creation of Neo-Realism. It is because of the Sicilian location shooting and casting of non-actors that I feel that La Terra Trema could not have been made had Visconti not worked on Toni. A quote from Visconti about a very different film, the elegant Death in Venice could easily apply to the film he worked on as an assistant: "I prefer to tell stories of defeat. I have a soft spot for lonely souls and destinies beat by reality."